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Monday, May 29, 2017

Aaron Judge & The Yankees Set To Begin Big AL East Stretch

After a 4-2 home stand the Yankees are now 29-18. They lead the AL East by three games. It's been an exciting first two months of the season, with great starts by veterans and even greater ones by kids.

Now comes the hard part.

The next 13 games are against, of course, American League East teams. The stretch starts today in Baltimore when the Yankees open a three-game series against the Orioles. It continues Thursday in Toronto against the Blue Jays. After that, two series back home against the Red Sox and Orioles.

What can we, realistically, expect from the Yankees during such a stretch? In recent years it was nothing but doom. I don't think we can expect the same this time. For one thing, the starting rotation, which was expected to be this team's downfall, has been lights out lately. For another, the offense, though a little quiet lately, has been money. And lastly, the kids are all right.

Especially Aaron Judge.

The fact that Aaron Judge continued to play well after his home run pace slowed proves what a solid player he is and that he has a lot of star potential. There is a lot to look forward to with this kid. Lots of good times, right?

Perhaps. Perhaps, not. With the recent hullabaloo surrounding Odell Beckham, Jr, it has been easy for some people to look at Judge and wonder if he will end up making similar miss-steps. Not that I think Odell's latest decision was a miss-step. It was a non-mandatory workout, for goodness sake! Anyway. From all that we've heard about Aaron Judge, no miss-steps can be expected. At least, nothing really egregious.

His parents have a lot to do with it. We've all heard about Wayne and Patty Judge, a white couple who adopted Aaron when he was two days old. It's a beautiful story. They took in a part-black child and raised him with love in a white rural town in northern California. After all of that, it would have been understandable if he only thought of himself as white. But that is not the case. Read more of his story in Dave Brown's Answer Man column here.